‘Eruption’: The classic Van Halen song that impressed Angus Young
Angus Young and AC/DC represent a very precise form of rock. They are genre purists who set out to return it to its most unadulterated form by putting the roll back into it à la the 1950s pioneers who started it all. Kicking back against the dramatic pomposity of prog and the expansive esotericism of acts such as Led Zeppelin, they took their anthemic music to the masses and offered an entertaining alternative.
Although AC/DC are one of the world’s most influential bands, making a mark on everyone from Metallica to Dave Grohl and even Nick Cave, they’ve always been different from their contemporaries. Sure, this is what they set out to do, but the way they live their lives has also stood as a refreshing counterpart to the alcohol and drug-related hijinx that most of their peers have become synonymous with.
Second frontman Bon Scott might have lost his life due to acute alcohol poisoning, but driving force Angus Young has been a teetotaler all his life, and much prefers chocolate milk before a show. It’s pretty ironic, given the band’s connection to big choruses and an audience who love chugging pints. Yet, from this clean living to his schoolboy uniform and even his unique guitar tone, striking out from the norm is what he does and what has brought his outfit much success.
Customarily, then, Young is also full of particular opinions about music. Dogged in his likes and dislikes, he’s also prone to throwing a curveball out there every so often. While one of his hottest takes has been that Led Zeppelin is just “poor imitators of The Who” and plain boring live, he’s also surprised fans with his love of Van Halen, a band that seems fully antithetical to his own with their bombastic music, and the late Eddie Van Halen’s tendency to show off technically.
It all stems back to a bill both bands featured on in the late 1970s for a Day on the Green show held by the legendary Bill Graham. Young wasn’t very familiar with the American quartet at the time apart from the classic instrumental ‘Eruption’, which deeply impressed him and confirmed Eddie as one of the greatest guitarists ever.
In Eddie Van Halen by Neil Zlozower, Young explained: “Didn’t know much about Van Halen then except that I remember seeing film clips of them, especially the one of Eddie playing the solo piece, ‘Eruption, and I was very impressed. I didn’t meet Eddie until years later when there was a Monsters of Rock open-air festival in England. I was shocked to hear he liked my playing, because I’ve never rated myself as a guitarist.”
He added: ”Eruption’ is a favourite track. He’s got everything characteristic of his playing in that song – there’s a bit of everything.”
Young is in no doubt that Eddie was an innovator, but he surprised everyone by likening him to one of his ultimate heroes, Jimi Hendrix, in the way that he completely changed the game of guitar playing. He was so effective, he said, that he spawned an array of imitators who started buying the same guitars and attempting the same licks. Still, it’s not just this that places him in the same category as the ‘Purple Haze’ legend. Young maintained that his work had much experimentation underpinning it and even crossed into the avant-garde, just like Hendrix.
